


Rebuild

by yesterday



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: holy thug trinity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:28:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1298200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yesterday/pseuds/yesterday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoba and Koujaku visit Mizuki in the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. you're reassembled just like me.

**Author's Note:**

> let's pretend mizuki's route in re:c happens sometime during this but isn't shown i don't know

The first time you visit Mizuki in the hospital after Platinum Jail, he's asleep, but the way his brows are knit together suggests it's anything but peaceful. You sit by his bedside and listen to the steady blip of the heart monitor which moves just out of step with the slow rise and fall of his chest. 

He's not awake- you worry that he won't ever wake up again even though the doctors say he's conscious, just tired. All you can do is come back another day, but for now, you sit with him. You reach out to clasp his hand. It's cool.

Maybe you're secretly relieved that Mizuki is sleeping, because you're afraid to meet his eyes after everything that happened. Worried about what he'll say to you, how he'll react when he sees you. Will he be afraid? Angry? 

Mizuki's face relaxes minutely, eyes moving behind closed lids. He's dreaming. You frown and look down at your fingers, the words spilling out of your mouth. "I'm sorry."

There's no answer, apart from the _beep beep beep_ of the machine that tells you Mizuki's alive, and honestly, that itself should be enough reassurance for you. Perhaps you're more greedy than you thought. Maybe you want more than you should. 

You try not to think about everything you could have done better.

The second time you visit Mizuki in the hospital, your hair is short, shorter than its ever been, and Mizuki's hair flops precariously close to his eyes in haphazard, shaggy layers. You tell him he needs a haircut, because this time he's awake. 

"It looks good. Makes you look younger. Who did it?" he asks.

You tell him it was Koujaku, and that he would've sulked for days if anyone else had been the one to do the job anyway, so. Mizuki raises an eyebrow at him, gets this look on his face that says he knows there's more to it than you're letting on. You stare back at him and ask what, but he shakes his head and says it's nothing. Says you should bring Koujaku along next time, since he hasn't shown his face around here yet.

You nod and agree, because what else can you do? 

Later that day when you swing by Koujaku's place and he greets you with a smile, you tell him that Mizuki's expecting a visit from him. Koujaku laughs and says yeah, he'd better drop by sometime.

"He seems lonely," you say. Is that the right word? It's the best one under the circumstances. Mizuki isn't ever truly alone, after all. He has Dry Juice, its members recovering daily, not to mention yourself dropping by whenever you can. 

Koujaku's fingers pause, then still in your hair. He sighs and slides his hand down to cup your face instead. 

"Aoba..." he starts, and you shake your head, turning to press your lips against Koujaku's palm. 

"I know; I know it wasn't my fault," _but_ , you think. You should've known. The right words to say, the best way to put Mizuki's doubts to rest back then- how do you tell someone that ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind- when you always declined each and every invitation he extended? 

No, none of that. You're over it. Mizuki doesn't blame you, so you shouldn't either. When you look up at Koujaku again, he has his worried face on, and you laugh, eyes crinkling. Reaching up to lace your fingers through his, you sigh and shake your head again.

"Let's go together next time," is all you say. 

The third time you visit Mizuki in the hospital, Koujaku trails along behind you. Mizuki looks up from his Coil with a widening of the eyes that turns into a smile that lights up his face. You set the box of peaches you brought along on the bedside table, arranging the two chairs meant for visitors side by side. Koujaku cracks open the window and a breeze makes its way in. He sits down beside you while you peel the peaches, talking to Mizuki about this and that with your interjections. 

"Isn't it about time you got a haircut, Mizuki?" Koujaku says, in between bites of fruit, the juice running in rivulets down his fingers. You accidentally bite your lip, wincing and tasting blood. Mizuki pauses and fingers his fringe ruefully with a laugh.  


"Yeah," he says, "Maybe it is. You gonna cut it for me?" 

Koujaku glances at you and you make a face, mouthing the words _I told you so_ at him and begin to remove things from your bag. As you do so, Mizuki cranes his head to see what you're doing, and Koujaku tells him, "Aoba thought you'd ask me, and I wasn't so sure. We packed everything in case anyway." 

There's no time like the present, so you help Mizuki out of the bed while Koujaku rearranges one of the chairs in front of the mirror above the sink. He washes his hands before stepping back to offer Mizuki the seat. You end up on the bed, sitting cross legged and watching Koujaku watch Mizuki. Koujaku who asks if maybe he should cut it all off, and Mizuki who says very seriously in return that he's the expert here, and if he thinks it should go, then who is he to complain?

The sound of scissors snipping through hair fills the room. You finish the peach in your hand, the sweetness lingering on your tongue even after it's gone. Koujaku's quiet now, focused on his task, and Mizuki's eyes have fallen shut. He's not asleep though. There's something relaxing in leaving things in someone else's hands even for just a while, and you understand that. 

By the time Koujaku finishes, the sun is slowly sinking down, flooding the room in a brilliant orange light. You're dozing on the bed when he declares the job down, pulling the cloth free from around Mizuki's neck. 

Mizuki examines himself in the mirror, and you watch him through his reflection. Koujaku asks him if it's too short, and he shakes his head, raking his hands through his hair. 

"Feels a lot lighter now. Thanks, Koujaku." Mizuki smiles at you through the mirror and you grin back, propping your face on your hands. 

"And he even cut it for free. Lucky you!" you tease, rolling over and off the bed. You swipe the last peach from the box, and offer it to Mizuki. His fingertips are warm when they brush against yours. 

"Oi, who said I was doing this for free?" Koujaku's cleaning up, tucking his scissors safely away and leaning over Mizuki to examine his own handiwork. He brushes a few stray hairs off the back of his neck, before patting Mizuki on the shoulder. 

"What? Aoba told me he'd foot the bill if you tried to make me pay." 

"No way, I never said that!" you dart away from the playful swat Koujaku aims at you. Mizuki's laughing, and you can't help but join him too, tipping your head back; then all three of you are laughing, and it's like nothing ever happened and you were all still you, the same friends you've always been. 

And that's when you know that everything will be fine. Mizuki will leave the hospital before long. The two- no, three of you will meet at the Black Needle on a slow evening again for drinks and company. Koujaku and Mizuki will make fun of you when you start to become visibly inebriated after a few drinks, and you'll tell them that it's just their imagination, or that Mizuki must've given you extra shots of alcohol, that's why, that's _why--_

Koujaku slips his hand into yours, teeth gleaming in light and the red of his eyes reflect the sun. You squeeze his hand, slide your fingers into the gaps between his and lock them together. 

You steal the peach from Mizuki, bite over where his teeth left marks and say, "It's sweet." 

Mizuki exhales through his nose, something not quite like a sigh leaving him. "Yeah," he agrees, "It's sweet."


	2. you twist and whisper the wrong name.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friends with benefits.

Mizuki and Koujaku have an arrangement- with a lower case a-- not uppercase. It goes something like this:

The two of them will pass by one another on the street, maybe, and chat for a little while. One of them will casually ask the other "busy tonight?" and receive either a yes or no for an answer.

Which is why some nights, after Mizuki's closed up the Black Needle and its rooms are quiet and free of the heavy beat of music reverberating against its walls, Koujaku will drop by with a wave and smile. Mizuki will slide behind the bar to make them both drinks before relaxing on the stool next to Koujaku, and they chat. About Rib, people Mizuki knows, people Koujaku knows (mostly women), and inevitably, about Aoba.

It's difficult not to talk about him, when he's the one who introduced the two of them in the first place.

On one particular evening, Mizuki and Koujaku end up at Koujaku's place simply for a change of pace. Mizuki brings a bottle of something strong and smooth, and Koujaku's always made a habit of keeping his liquor cabinet topped up.

"You know he tried to deck me the first time we met? That was after he took out a whole gang of punks too," Mizuki says with a laugh, "I asked him to join Dry Juice right there and then, but he turned me down."

Koujaku, who's been listening with his chin propped on his hand now moves it to pour himself another drink. "Aoba did? That's pretty hard to believe." 

"I think I fell for it the moment I saw it- his roundhouse kick to the jaw." His eyes are seeing something, a piece of the past that him and Aoba shared that Koujaku wasn't (couldn't be) there for. Mizuki glances at Koujaku and shrugs his shoulders as if to say, _that's just how it is._ "We all had our wild years, back then."

And their fair share of nights running through the endless maze of Midorijima's back alleys, footsteps pounding on pavement just as hard as the heartbeat in their ears. Breath mingling in the cold air while they struggle to sate their heaving lungs, hands on knees and laughing despite it all.

"Sure," Koujaku says, staring into his cup. His own face is reflected back at him, the eye that shows blinking before he pulls his gaze away. "I know what you mean." He wasn't here to stick with Aoba or know Mizuki through those years, but he's here now. That's what matters, and that's what makes it possible for him to smile, nothing forced to it.

Mizuki tilts his head back and downs the shot. How many has it been now? They've both lost track. It doesn't really matter when they're at Koujaku's place, with the bathroom conveniently close and no one to bother either of them should they pass out dead drunk.

"Even though I keep telling him to join Dry Juice, he never says yes. What about you, Koujaku? Any luck getting him on your team?"

The alcohol goes down the wrong way and Koujaku coughs, clears his throat and says no, the thought of it never really crossed his mind to begin with. He knows that Aoba wants to stay out of Rib, out of _trouble._ Rib might be nothing more than a game, but it's a dangerous one. But he's well aware of Mizuki's stance on Rib though, so he can't fault him for wanting Aoba to join his team either.

Can't blame him for wanting something more concrete.

"I thought the tattoo might've been the problem." Mizuki traces his finger over the table, following the wood grain finish. "And I came up with a bunch of places he could put it so no one would see."

Koujaku makes an affirmative noise in the back of his throat. Ink is popular on Midorijima, Mizuki's a tattoo artist. Of course it's only natural that he wants to tattoo Aoba.

"Like his back where it starts to dip, or below his collarbone. But he said that wasn't it." Mizuki trails off. Mouth dry, Koujaku takes a generous gulp from his cup to hide his face, which has begun to heat. From the alcohol? Maybe, maybe not.

"Well... Aoba's stubborn. He's been that way since he was a kid," he says slowly, trying not to think about needles pressing into Aoba's pale skin, leaving it swollen and pink.

"Too bad." Mizuki sighs wistfully. "Maybe one of these days."

Koujaku nods, pouring another one out for Mizuki and makes some comment or the other about how mountains would move before Aoba did when he set his mind to it. Before long, they're laughing over a dumb joke Koujaku can't even begin to recall, and then stumbling through Koujaku's apartment like two drunk teenagers, groping at one another and tugging at clothing impatiently.

This is part of the arrangement too.

Mizuki knocks over a hairbrush, some lipstick that was left here when he bumps into the vanity, before his hands close over a tube of lip gloss, raises his eyebrow at it and gets a look in his eye that Koujaku knows well spells trouble by now, but he's too late to stop him from slicking it all over his mouth.

"It's not your colour," he jokes, eyes on his lips.

Mizuki grins and licks them, making a face. "Not my flavour either. You still letting them keep all this crap here, Koujaku?"

"Women have a lot of needs," He isn't expecting Mizuki to interrupt him partway and sinking to his knees and pushing Koujaku against the wall, yanking his pants down past his hips and going to town on him, starting with a long, slow lick that makes his dick jump in Mizuki's hands and winding his fingers through Mizuki's hair. "Oi, Mizuki-"

"Relax," Mizuki says and grins up at Koujaku. "I'm good at this, remember?"

Koujaku remembers _vividly_ , and certainly Mizuki does an excellent job of making sure he won't forget anytime in the near future. Koujaku is bracing himself against the wall by the time he's through, his knees weak and Mizuki's expression distinctly smug, swollen as his lips are.

The two of them barely make it to the bedroom in a tangle of limbs and hands after that.

When Koujaku comes to the next morning (or is it afternoon?) and catches Mizuki's eyes going over the peonies etched into his back, he turns over. Asks him _what_ with sleep laced into his voice, and Mizuki shakes his head and say it's nothing.

Nothing at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> set way before the first chapter, if it wasn't obvious. this was actually based off of a prompt on tumblr, but i didn't quite go through with it.


End file.
